


only a body

by quantum27



Series: a cup of good intentions (tron one shots) [3]
Category: Tron (Movies), Tron - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Blood, Character Death, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:46:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26182891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantum27/pseuds/quantum27
Summary: Tron should've noticed.
Relationships: Kevin Flynn & Tron
Series: a cup of good intentions (tron one shots) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872664
Comments: 12
Kudos: 30





	only a body

Tron should’ve noticed. He should’ve noticed Clu’s agitation. He should’ve noticed the way Dyson hadn’t gotten medical attention for that wound. He should’ve noticed the unease of the ISOs whenever Clu was around. 

And currently, he should’ve noticed the disk lodged in Flynn’s side.

* * *

Tron had told Flynn to run, which he did. But not before grabbing the firewall’s arms and dragging him with a strength he shouldn’t have had. Though currently, Tron felt like someone had grabbed his very code and had tugged on it, **hard** . And by the way Flynn’s single circuit line on his jacket flared he had a guess that that was exactly what had happened. _Damned User Powers_. 

They raced through the winding streets of the Grid, keeping to the more hidden backstreets. At some point, Tron had taken the lead. The two of them kept tossing their disks back at their pursuers. Tron was currently glad he’d grabbed the disk of the fallen ( _Red? Could he call them that? Reds had always been the MCP’s soldiers._ ) fighter. Flynn’s own disk was too important to use in battle currently, so he’d given it to the User to use. 

Flynn may have been behind him but he still had a hold on Tron’s code, constantly tugging _/go left/_ or _/go right/_ .

Eventually, Flynn’s tugging led them to a back alleyway. Tron watched behind them for signs of any new attackers as Flynn pressed the wall.; opening a secret door. He dragged the security program in. The room was small, the size of a closet with only a wall-terminal. Flynn activated it typing fast- but there was something clumsy about it that usually wasn’t there. Tron frowned, Flynn was the most adept person at typing he’d ever met. 

“There,” The User breathed harshly, out of breath, “Sent off a bunch of false signals that should buy you some time.” 

Tron furrowed his eyebrows, “Me? Don’t you mean _us_?” 

Flynn smiled sadly, “Yeah, not this time, my friend.” His gaze slowly fell to his torso. Tron’s gaze followed and he felt every line of code that made him lurch at the sight. An identity disk was deep in the User’s body. Dark blood, almost ebony seeping around it. He’d only ever seen Flynn prick his fingers when it came to blood. Each time the User would hiss before sucking on it till it stopped. Tron had always written it off. But now- **_Oh Users_ ** \- there was so much blood. Any number of programs would’ve only been voxels by now, the disk was so deep, only the rim of one side visible. _How_ hadn’t he noticed the wound? It was so obvious. How…?

Tron went to pull the disk out. 

“Wait!” Flynn interjected, “Don’t- If you do that, I’ll bleed out even faster!” 

Tron blinked. This was his fault. Flynn noticed his distress, able to read his thoughts easily. 

“Hey now, it’s not your fault- I on the other hand- Have been So Stupid-” The User was swaying on his feet. He looked ready to fall over. Tron grasped him by the shoulders, and the User leaned back on him, clutching him tightly. 

“You’re alive.” Tron said dumbly, dazed the man was still standing at all. 

Flynn’s face contorted, “Yeah, barely.”  
  


 _(In an instant they were back on the Solar Sailor, the User’s fiery red circuits cooling down to blue. When the only threat was a distant enemy, not close friends.)_

“Listen, Tron,” he continued, “You have to take my disk to the portal-get out- contact Alan, he can- agh- fix this from the outside.” 

Tron growled furiously, knowing that the plan to contact Alan_One had always been discussed for Extreme Emergencies. It was one they had only discussed twice, but Tron knew the protocol for it by heart. Get to the User World, The Realm of the Invisible, use a ‘pager’ to contact Alan_One, and give him an informational ‘booklet’ that Flynn had written to tell him about the Grid. But this plan meant leaving the Grid. In Chaos. 

“I can’t leave the Grid- My security team- I don’t know-” _Don’t know if they’re dead or alive, don’t know if they’ve sided with Clu, like Dyson-_

“Anon’s out there,” Flynn reassured, “They’ll fight for as long as they can.” 

The two stared at each other.

“You can’t die.” Tron said stubbornly. Flynn laughed something that sounded more like a sob than anything. His blood was all over the program’s white lightsuit. A handprint of smeared blood over the famous ‘T’ Flynn gazed blankly at it before touching Tron’s symbol. The symbol disappeared into black that spread over the entire suit. It also got rid of most of his circuits except for a few small ones. Then they shifted to a red-orange, and Tron stiffened. 

“What?” Tron’s suit had, for the most part, always been a bright white, like the old ENCOM suits compared to most Grid Dwellers' black lightsuits. The red blood on it now mostly blended in with the now dark suit.

“A stealth suit- Had it in an update- just hadn’t enabled the code to make it accessible.” Flynn’s fingers slowly traced over where the ‘T’ had been. 

“Flynn,” Tron said, voice cracking, “You can’t die.” It was useless to repeat the statement, and yet what else was there to do? 

Flynn’s knees trembled and the two awkwardly struggled, eventually ending with the User sliding down the wall to sit. There was now a line of blood smeared on the wall from the User using his hand to slide down. 

“You know the plan- the pager- It’s very-analog compared to- Agh, you should be able to figure it out. And remember, the copy of the explanation of the Grid, in a safe- the explanation- for- for Alan.” 

“I know.” Tron said softly.

Then he shut his mouth and then opened and shut it again. What could he possibly say? For cycles he’d wished he could’ve been there when Ram derezzed- but now he was regretting the thought entirely. 

“Tell my son I love him, will ya’?” Tron nodded, grasping Flynn’s hands tightly. The User’s gaze was becoming unfocused, distant, “Y’know, You and Alan are the _best_ \- best friends, I could’ve asked for. I’m sorry I couldn’t return the favor.” 

“It’s alright. You did your best Flynn- I’m sure- I’m sure Alan_One would say the same.” 

Flynn gave him a slightly skeptical look, looking out of place in the situation. Tron glared back, daring him to argue now of all times. Flynn sighed stutteringly, letting it go. Then his gaze focused again. The User’s hands slowly retracted from the program’s. His hands hover over the disk, and Tron frowned- What was he-? 

Before he could stop him, Flynn pulled out the disk with a large groan and an awful squelching sound, a new stream of blood splattering across Tron’s chest. Tears streamed down the User’s face. 

“Flynn!!” The blood pooled out onto his legs now, and onto the floor. Tron desperately pressed his hands against the wound, as if willing he could put it back. Flynn pushing them away before grasping them, and squeezing them as tightly as he could; which was barely any strength at all. 

  
  


“I love you, man.” The User whispered, only Tron’s superior hearing letting him hear it. 

Then the User’s hands went limp, his shoulders untensing. His eyes were glassy, staring into somewhere beyond this place. He didn’t turn to voxels, nor did his energy return to the system. Only a body. _Only a body._ Despite this, Tron knew exactly what this was.

* * *

Kevin Flynn was dead.

He didn’t know exactly what he was doing next, but he brushed his fingers lightly over the body’s eyelids, shutting them. Then he slowly got the disk from the body’s back. Carefully he shifted the body to lay on the floor, crossing its arms together. If it weren’t for the gaping hole in the torso, it could’ve been that the body was only sleeping. 

He turned away, a harsh broken breath exhaling. A single tear ran down the program’s face. Willing himself not to look back, he activated his helmet and exited onto the streets of the Grid.

**Author's Note:**

> honestly the only positive thing about this is the offhand fact i mention anon is nonbinary. :/ (*fingerguns* in only having watched the evolution cutscenes once at midnight. idk) I was already writing something else that was hurt/comfort, and my brain was like. But what if? Pure angst??? And i was like no???? and then i wrote this anyway.


End file.
